1999 Subaru Impreza STi Version 5 2.0 turbo from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Faults:

General Comments:

This has to be the quickest most exciting car I have owned. Passing other traffic was safe and easy.

It was reliable and comfortable.

The only real downsides were:

Boot space or lack thereof.

Lack of lap/sash rear center seat-belts, at a time when other Subaru models of the same year had them.

The cars inability in Snow. Besides being 4wd, all the car's wheels just spun (in 2nd gear) in one of Ruapehu's car-parks. I got out with help from by-standers pushing the car. The 4wd system is biased towards performance grip and handling, not low down traction as needed there.

Even though the car was NZ new, it's trade in value suffered as imports could be bought (by Subaru franchise dealerships) for less, and this major dealership does not differentiate between NZ new/imports at trade in time, though it does place a premium on second hand NZ new cars when they retail them.

11th Jun 2004, 11:38

I would love to know how many other people have had engine go kaput on them. I own a 1999 Impreza an at 62,000 miles lost oil pressure and totally trashed the motor. I never got an indicator light or any sign that something was wrong. Of course it was 2000 miles over the warranty so Subaru said So Solly!

23rd Aug 2005, 19:17

Most dealers will work with you if you are only a few thousand over the warranty. A domestic car dealer replaced a head on a 5.4 V8 4,500 over warranty. I had to be very persistant. I have heard of others getting the same treatment.